olszie

What deals did you get with Disney? Wanting to do one with them, but the prices are always so high.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/special-offers/florida-residents-rates/

They update this page every few weeks. You have to be quick though. They do sell out fast.

I'd love to find some of these reasonable Disney cruises. PC is the closest to us too, and we'd love to try Disney, but their prices have been prohibitive every time I've looked for something. We come out ahead leaving after work and driving halfway to FLL/MIA, staying in a hotel, and embarking before noon, even with the hotel and extra gas. Like, WAY ahead. We'll drive back home in one day when the cruise is over.

 

I'm looking at a weekender over the summer sometime and DCL is coming in at around double RCL. :(

Try looking for Florida Resident specials. We were able to sail in June last year on the Fantasy and it was $130 per person per night for a balcony room. :D DCL normally puts their FL resident specials up about 8 weeks before the sailing dates.

My husband wears a pair of black leather New Balance athletic shoes on the cruise. He wears them with his black dress pants and everything else for that matter. This way I don't have to pack his size 13 1/2 dress shoes. :D

If I brought 5 empty stainless steel or plastic water bottles in my carry on, would they stop me for that? Should I store the lids separately to make it obvious they are empty?

We bring 2 double walled Thermos bottles and leave the caps off. We carry the bottles on and have always had someone verify that they were empty even with the caps off.

We were in room 10327 and had just the sofa bed. It was plenty big enough for 2 people when opened. The only problem we had was there was about 6 inches to walk around the bed when it was open. It made the room feel really small. My husband kept hitting the bed when he walked out to the balcony. (Size 13 feet)

Having sailed on both ships I liked the Fantasy alot more. My DD was also 6 at the time and loved the Disney Kids Club. I like the fact that the hours of the kids club are longer. On the Oasis the kids club hours are 9-12, 2-5 and 7-10. We always felt like we were running to pick her up. When we wanted to see the headliner shows on the Oasis you had to run after the 9 pm show beacause you had 10 minutes to get there. If you saw the 7pm show you might not be able to get in after you dropped her off.

The other thing that I did not like on the Oasis was the room layout. The couch folds out into a bed and the bed is right in front of the balcony doors. It made the room feel very small when my DD was sleeping. There was about 12 inches between the bed and desk to walk by.

My DD also liked the Aqua Duck and bucket play area. The pool deck on the Oasis is split in half because of the zip line. The kids water section is only half of the pool deck. Not alot of room up there when it is crowded.

The Oasis is a beautiful ship and it is huge. We did not feel like we relaxed as much because there was always something to see and do and we did not want to miss anything. Probably our fault.

THe Adult Section on the Oasis is for people 16 and up. There were a lot of 16-17 year olds playing in the hot tub.

MY DD tried the rock wall but she was too small for the flowrider and zipline. Maybe when she is older we will try the Oasis again but while she is smaller we will sail on Disney.

Just go to Ron Jons like everyone else...

If you are talking about the Ron Jon's by Port Canaveral, Holiday Inn Vacation Club purchased it in April 2014.

I was on the FOS 12/7 and the only thing that I read in the cruise compass that was not allowed at dinner any night was swimwear, flip flops and sports shorts. I did see people wear dress shorts into the MDR on all nights EXCEPT formal night. There were people who were turned away because they were wearing shorts on formal night. I saw jeans everynight and no one said a word.

I do not mind missing one port to save a child's life. What rubs me the wrong way is the compensation that was handed out to the other cruises but not ours. I would have been happy with a discount off of a future cruise. It would not have even had to be much just something to say hey we are sorry the ship was not running at capacity we hope to make it up to you in the future.

I know that my next 2 cruises that I have booked will not be on RCCL. Maybe one day I will go back but right now I am not happy with their decision. I know they really are not going to care about my sailing on another line because someone will take my place but it gives me an excuse to try other lines. Who knows I might find one I am really happy with.

RCCL customer service just called me. They told me they are not looking to compensate any guests from the 12/7 sailing. I explained my issue was the fact that the cruise before us and the 3 cruises after us are receiving compensation. She told me the more people that voice their opinion about this fact the better it would be for us in getting some type of compensation.

I was on this sailing and the actual times in port were even shorter than listed for Labadee. I was one of he first people off the ship there due to an excursion, and it was 10:45 when I walked off the ship. That port was shortened, too because of weather. I think we left there around 3:15?

Yes we were all called back on board about 2:30 because 2 mooring lines snapped. It made for one very short day.

So, we've been wondering about shortened port times and missed ports on the Freedom....

 

Our XPLOR excursion in Cozumel, just got cancelled. I received an email a few minutes ago. I'll be calling Royal in an hour to get the scoop.

 

I knew that excursion was a trek to get to, being that it actually on the mainland, so I was not surprised. However, I thought i'd pass it along.

 

This will be our 3rd NYE cruise on the Freedom ... She's a great ship and we are sailing with a total of 13 family members. It's going to be a GREAT time no matter what.. BUT be ready for shorter port times.. :)

:rolleyes:

On our 12/7 cruise all Cozumel mainland tours were cancelled even before the medical emergency caused us to miss the port.

I forgot to mention even though we did not go to Cozumel due to the medical emergency, all mainland excurions to Cozumel were cancelled due to the shortened port time.

These were our adjusted port times that we were given when we checked-in at the port. Everyone needed to be back on board 30 minutes prior to listed departure time.

Tues Labadee 10:15am - 4 pm

Wed Falmouth 10:45am - 6pm

Thurs Grand Cayman 7:30am - 2:30pm

Fri Cozumel 10am - 4:30 pm

The last tender in Grand Cayman was 1:45. There were a few people on our sailing who had booked independent tours in the Caymans that were not getting back until 2pm. They were at the excursions desk trying to get phone numbers for the tour operators and were mad at RCCL for not having the contact information for these independent tours.

I hope this helps if you are planning to go it on your own.

Regarding this morning: 12/14/14: We arrived on time and debarkation was initially a bit ahead of time. It slowed down, and we disembarked at 9:50am as opposed to our posted 9:15am tag. They called tags 23 through 30 at the same time. We were 26. All in all it was still a pretty smooth disembarkation. I will be writing a review, but I have to say that Captain Tor is the best, and the staff members were very visible and kind. Some passengers were, of course, very unreasonable about Cozumel, but the captain did the right thing for the baby. Will share more in my upcoming review.

 

We had a great time! Although missed ports are always disappointing, it is a possibility on any cruise, any cruiseline. Just make the best of every moment! I wish I could be on the ship again right now! :D

 

We did get a $50 OBC for the shortened port times. We had a PR (inside) stateroom.

We did not get any OBC at all . :(

Ando.... We did watch both diving shows from the balcony. We could see them fine. We enjoyed eating breakfast on the balcony and watching as we pulled into port. Some of the movies on the big screen were hard to hear. The balcony did get hot. There was very little air movement.

The room itself was small. It was the smallest room we have ever had on a ship especially when the sofa bed was open. We did a lot of walking everyday. It seemed like all I did was walk. I am not sure how old your 3rd person is but mine DD is 8 and we were running to the front of the ship for the kids club 3 times a day. The one good thing is with all that walking I lost 2 pounds.:D

Even though you could see a small amount of ocean I did miss "seeing" the ocean. We spent more time up on deck because I like to look around and enjoy the breeze. This was not possible on our balcony.

On the Allure we had cabin 10327. It had the sofa that pulled out into a bed and it was very uncomfortable. Thankfully my DD was only 8 so it wasn't too bad for her. One night she wanted me to sleep with her on it but I could only last 30 minutes. One half of the sofa/bed was the back of the sofa. It had very little padding on it maybe 2 or 3 inches. Also when it was opened up it made the room feel very small. You had to scoot sideways to get out the balcony door. Every morning we put the sofa back together so we could eat on the balcony.

We had the Boardwalk Room 10327. We just got off the Allure on Sun. and the only time we heard noise was for the Aqua Show and when they were playing a basketball games on the big screen. The Aqua show ended about 11:15 one night and the basketball game went on until 11:30-12:00.